The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-06
THE FESTIVAL OF MUSIC.


The four days festival of music made a good
beginning in all its departments yesterday, and
besides essays which we're we'll furnished forth
with ideas of moment, there was an adequate
amount of good and genuinely artistic music.
The appropriate sound of the organ ushered in
the day, and sonata by Durham played by Mr..
Batchelder set the keynote of the first days
session.
Miss Kapper of New York, sang and it was
obvious that she is well-schooled vocalist who
is endowed with a voice large sweet and sympa-
thetc. Her phrasing also was Intelligent and
musical. The cosmopolitan character of the
music is seen in the feasts outspread before the
attending hundreds. Italian arias sung
spirito by German vocalists, American plan
lists play the compositions of another cho-
ruses of Anglo Americans sing elaborate cantatas
of Germans, the East and the West clasp hands;
the pianist lays his executive talent at the feet
of the creative fancy of the composer, and one
thing only mars the unity and symmetry Of the
meeting-that is to say, the glaring preponder-
ance of Eastern men over Western. Sectional
lines hurtful in art than in politics, and
the legitimate aim of high art is that which was
emphatically proclaimed by our supreme master
Beethoven to bind all mankind in one vast and
happy family.
and Chicago pianist, Misa Neallie Stevens
gave an admirable recital in the early part of the
afternoon. Mr.. Courtney can not be highly
praised for his voice. which is somewhat weak
and not in any sense extraordinarily resonant,
but his singing is artistic in the best meaning CT
that hard-worked word. He articulates like an
accomplished orator, and that, though the first
thing demanded of a singer. is the last thing
He hat vo1v
voice absurdly abjured by the modern Italian
lied shouters, who take the key-bugle for
their model and by those throaty Germans who
seem to have learned singing from the tree toad,
and his melting dimnuendos as poetic as
twilight. The songs chosen illustrated many
styles, the singer cleverly varying his treatment
for each. The two best were the two which, of
a surety, stand at antpodes the Adelaide of
Beethoven, the greatest of love songs. with it's
picturesque accompaniment, and that tuneful
but most simple English ballad, the anchor
Weighed of Braham. The song by MIR.
Schlesnger was brilliant and garnished with
fine accompaniment. That of Mr. Arthur
Foote, of Boston. a setting of Walters go,
Lovely Rose" was well varied to the sentiment.
Why did not Mr.. Foote give the song spiritual
nobility by setting that sixth stanza. with its
auisite moral, which Henry Kirke White added
to this poem?
Miss Nealle Stevens gave the cheval de bat
taile of every piano virtuoso Liszt's E fat con-
certo. It IS work full of beauties, both of
melody and harmony, but is a trihe
incoherent and bit capricious, not at
all the peer in dignity. power or close texture
of the other in ma or which is played too sell
dom. Miss Stevens throws off this dazzling
piece of virtuosoship admirably, her touch being
merely sounding peary, but dewy, and the runs
seem fairly to bubble and the piano actually
cools one on hot day. Her bravura effects of
the light and speedy variety were wonderful,
and she plays with an ethereal fire which is to
that of other pianists, TO whom we would give
the title "fervenr,' what the ''shimmering OPAL"
which some one has called "a pearl with a soul
in it," is to the flaming ruby. Miss Stevens
also gave an affective reading of scherzo tar
rentela and gavotte by W. G. Smith, of Cleve-
land, who beyond doubt, holds in his brain a
spark of the divine fire. JOHN S. VANCLEvE
The Opening Concert.
In a smaller hall the audience that heard the
excellent music of American authors, at the first
festival concert, last night would have been
called brilliant. AS it was, expectation, though
it had not been extravagant placed perhaps too
COM
mittee did their work of preparation. In point
of attendance the concert was not, by any
means, failure. yet twas not altogether pleas
ant to note, at the beginning of Foote'S
pleasing overture In the Mountains" several
hundred vacant chairs. But the people
continued to come in until one-third of these
available seats filled. This increase gave
the audience a more imposing presence, but still
groups the lower floor divided by seats
untaken. 1t was in the balcony where the best
appearance was made, yet the greater space of
the lower floor could have accommodate all and
then left room for few hundred more. This
absence of the people who would have probably
been there had the music been of a more fash
ionable cast lessened the success that an audi
ence is supposed to give to a performance. That
is all. Otherwise the people who reserve their
patronage for classical music we're not missed.
Those present may casually mention that the
audience might have been larger but it will not
interfere with their membranes of an enjoya-
able evening.
About two thousand people heard what they
never did before in Indianapolis, a concert
wherein every composition bore the American
stamp. It has been customary OF late years for
directors to condescend to put in American
number as bit of light variety. but to fill an
evening with American music is a venture the
success of which is still only probability. Per-
haps it would not have been done at this time
were the class OF music not most heartily sup
ported by the National Teachers Association.
If last nights audience shows the strength
of it's favor, it for some time to come
is to be awarded by ladies. They
composed nearly twotnirds of the charmed
listeners. Nor were they backward in applause
for it was they who kept the enthusiasm after
each number up to the standard mark of sue
cess Whether it the orchestra, the
solos and the chorus. the fair critics ladies
Dountiful in their signs of approval. But there
could heard over all the vigorous clapping of
their escorts. Indeed, the pleasure was general.
In these bursts of applause the evening had
something of the character of a gala night To